Saleforce.com on Monday announced buying big data firm Tableau Software for $15.7 billion, marking the biggest acquisition in the company’s history as it looks to offer more data insights to its clients.
The takeover of Tableau will be Salesforce’s largest deal todate. Co-Chief Executive Officers Marc Benioff and Keith Block have been chasing new markets to reach an annual revenue goal of $26 billion to $28 billion by fiscal year 2023.
Tableau will remain headquartered in Seattle and will continue to be led by CEO Adam Selipsky,
a former Amazon.com Inc. executive who has been transitioning Tableau’s software tools to cloud-based subscriptions. Each share of Tableau Class A and Class B common stock will be exchanged for 1.103 shares of Salesforce common stock, the companies said in a statement Monday. The deal price represents premium of 42% to Tableau’s closing price on Friday.
Known for its chart applications and analytics dashboards, Tableau has been broadening its product line to include data cleanup and machine learning tools, enabling it to compete in the wider data-warehousing.
Salesforce Chairman and co-CEO, Marc Benioff said "We are bringing together the world's No. 1 CRM with the No. 1 analytics platform.” “Tableau helps people see and understand data, and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers. It's truly the best of both worlds for our customers--bringing together two critical platforms that every customer needs to understand their world.”
With Customer 360, Salesforce can provide companies with a complete, intelligent view of their customers across every touchpoint—sales, service, marketing, commerce and more. Salesforce pioneered AI for CRM with Salesforce Einstein, and today delivers AI-powered analytics for sales and marketing.
"Joining forces with Salesforce will enhance our ability to help people everywhere see and understand data," said Adam Selipsky, president and CEO of Tableau. "As part of the world's No. 1 CRM company, Tableau's intuitive and powerful analytics will enable millions more people to discover actionable insights across their entire organizations. Tableau will make both Customer 360 and Salesforce's analytics capabilities stronger than ever, and enable the company to reach a much broader set of customers and users.